The Rings Cycle – Your Historic Sporting Fact of the Day from The Daily Constitutional in London

Tuesday
31st Equestrian

When the Games were staged in the Southern
Hemisphere for the first time – in Melbourne 1956 – the equestrian events fell
foul of Australia’s strict quarantine rules. The equestrian events were held
instead in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Rings Cycle – Your Historic Sporting Fact of the Day from The Daily Constitutional in London

Monday
30th Shooting

The Paris Olympics of 1900 ran alongside
The World’s Fair and the French capital saw a great number of sporting events –
both Olympic and otherwise – as part of the celebrations. In total 23 separate
shooting events took place – including canon shooting and live pigeon shooting
(!) – although the modern IOC recognises only nine as official Olympic events.

Day One and the atmosphere around Westminster on Saturday was truly infectious – Beach Volleyball at Horseguards Parade and Cycling on The Mall. Happy crowds, bright sunshine and a genuine feeling of being part of a great big party.

The Dutch helped. They always do…

***

Excuse Me, Is Anybody Sitting There?

The empty seats are disappointing. Mr Hunt the Culture & Sport bod from the government was on the BBC saying he thinks they were reserved for "corporate sponsors" who just didn’t bother to show up.

Mr Hunt tried his best to do some finger wagging on the BBC but here at OG we fear that he will be powerless to "repatriate" the unused tix with Londoners who would LOVE to use them.

In defence of the absentee suits… I suppose if you spend your life with your snout in the trough, it's tough to get your greedy bum down on a chair at the same time.

***

That’s
Rich

Andrew Marr on the opening ceremony
coverage on the BBC on Friday.

“London,” he drawled, “is an ugly city.”

Frankly, I resent that from a guy with such
a great face for radio. Cheeky blighter.

***

Oh…
Bugger

Here’s our attempt to capture the Red
Arrows as they roared over our house on Friday for the Opening Ceremony…

… in my defence, they were going really REALLY
fast!

***

Is
This Mitt Romney's Favourite Cinema?

Not everyone thinks our Olympics are a good thing. Do they, Mr Mitt? This characteristically irreverent marquee message from the folks at the Prince Charles cinema, Leicester Place caught our eye.

Happy Olympics, Mitt, mate!

***

All
That Glisters

The gold track suits for Team GB at the
opening ceremony... dearie me. The Greeks started this whole Olympic shebang.
And as usual, they have a word for everything. The word Hubris means pride
before a fall... Gold track suits… no gold medals on Day 1… Hmmmmmmm.

***

Brand
Police

Sweet to see the athletes at the opening
ceremony filming events on their phones for posterity. Wonder what the people
at a certain South Korean mobile phone manufacturers – big sponsors of the
Games – thought of the sight of so many Apple iPhones in the parade?